Vaccinations Could Be Made Compulsory, Reveals Health Secretary Matt Hancock

Hancock said the science “absolutely settled and clear” and warned once vaccination rates dropped below 95% the “herd immunity” which protects vulnerable children is lost.

“Now you’ve got to make sure the system would work, because some children can’t be vaccinated and some may hold very strong religious convictions that you want to take into account,” he said.

“But frankly, the proportion of people in either of those two categories is tiny compared to the 7% or 8% now who don’t get vaccinated.”

Earlier this month, New York joined California, Mississippi and West Virginia in revoking the religious exemptions for mandatory vaccinations in the United States.

In the event on the fringes of the Tory conference, Hancock also offered a strong defence of the sugar tax. He said the evidence it worked was “terrific”.

“I am not proposing we ban sugary drinks,” he said. “But we’ve got to tax something.”

Hancock added: “Lets levy taxes on things that are actively bad.”

But the health secretary also reassured Tory members in the audience that while he thought baked beans tasted “disgusting”, he was not going to argue that they should be banned.